Colombian Politics by Luciana Rizo

Colombia politics is quite different from the other South American politics and political history of Colombia has proved it from ages. It takes place in a structure of a presidential representative democratic republic; the president is both head of and head of government. The state is divided in 3 branches that compose the government. The executive power is the president, which is elected for a four-year term and since 2005 it can be re-elected for one consecutive term. The 1991 constitution reestablish the position of vice president, who is elected by the president or by his political party. In case of death, resignation or illness the vice president will succeed.  The congress and the senate compose the legislative power. The congress consists of a 102-member and the senate of a 161-member. Senators are elected on the basis of a nationwide ballot, while the representatives are elected in a multimember district taking in consideration the 32 national departments. Congress meets twice a year, and the president has the power to call it into special session. The judicial branch is separated and independent branch of government, is composed of four distinct jurisdictions, civilian, administrative constitutional and special. Colombia’s highest judicial organs include the Supreme Court, the Council of State, the Constitutional Court and the Superior Judicial Council.

Colombia has a lot of political parties, since 2006 there are more than 20 parties that participate in the elections.

Jamaican Politics by María Daniela Escobar

The island of Jamaica is one of the few countries in the world that has a representative parliamentary democratic monarchy. Jamaica’s one of the countries governed by the English monarchy, as few people know nowadays. This political structure was established in 1962, when a parliamentary system based on the UK’s model was structured for Jamaica, too like it’ been said. This happened when a joint committee of the Jamaican legislature wrote the actual Jamaican constitution. This constitution came along with Jamaica’s political independence from Great Britain. This independence allowed Jamaica to have constitutional safeguard, freedom of speech, press, worship, movement and association even though it’s still legated to English monarchy. This political structure leads Queen Elizabeth II as the chief of state, being the supreme power; your majesty appoints a governor general, with the help of the prime minister, to be her loyal representative in the peninsula of Jamaica. This may seem a little controversial, due to the fact that the governor general’s role has turned into a more ceremonial and image role.

The executive branch is conformed by your Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II that has been on the top of the government since 6 of February in 1952, Patrick Allen who’s been the governor general since the 26 of February of 2009 and Portia Simpson-Miller that has been the prime minister since the 5 of January of 2012.

On the other hand, the legislative branch is composed of a Senate and an elected House of Representatives. The senators are nominated and people from Jamaica vote every five years.

This political structure based on the UK’s model seems to be working for Jamaica, this may not be the most powerful or well organized country or island, in fact, Jamaicans have a lot of trying times, but we hope that elected members of Jamaican government will know how to do their job the best way they can do it.

For more news and information about Jamaican Politics feel free to go and visit: http://www.newstalk.com.jm/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=24&pid=1

Colombian Culture by Maria Juliana Henao

The Colombian culture has its origins, in the cultural miscegenation between natives and Spanish colonizers, from where comes most of the cultural influence.  Colombia presents a huge variety of sub regions with cultural differences too, this is because, thanks to the geographical accidents that the Colombian territory presents, in the time of colonization it was difficult to reach some regions. Due to the variety of regions, there are also different types of subcultures such as: Costeños, Paisas, Llaneros, Santandereanos, Vallunos ,Caucanos,.Tolimenses, Amazónicos, Cundiboyacenses, and Bogotános.
Even dough, there are different  subcultures, this one’s have in common many things, for example the language, Arts, music, gastronomy and religion. The principal language in Colombia is spanish, but this varies among sub regions, due to the influence of elements from Indians, Europeans and Africans. The paint and art comes, as said before, from the influence of colonizers, such as sapanish people; this was characterize by  a religious influence, but since the XX century some painters such as Alejandro Obregon, Enrique Grau y Omar Rayo, created a rupture between the classical religious influence, to a modern one. Now a day Fernando Botero is recognized as the maximum representative of the Colombian art, showing in his works, the style of the Colombian life. Colombia is also characterized by his crafts, that are made by hand, such as the “sombrero boltiao”, las alpargatas (a type of shoe), la ruana (a type of coat made of wool), etc, which all show the influence of the first natives that lived in Colombia.
The colombian music has its origins in the pre-Columbian age, were some instruments are preserved and still used, such as sonajas, cascabeles, flautas, ocarinas, fotutos, etc.). The first musician known,  was the jesuit J. Dadey. During the time of the viceroyalty, there were many musicians that had, a very strong Spanish influence. The popular music, is a combination between Indians, Hispanics and blacks, that’s way the rhythm of the music in the different regions varies. 
The colombian gastronomy also varies between regions, some of its most popular alcoholic drinks are: aguardiente, beer and ron.  Coffe is also an important drink, and its recognized internationally too.  In the hot drinks chocolate is really important, and is accompanied by  cheese and bread. In Colombia, a variety of native fruits are consumed such as:  guayaba, zapote, lulo, curuba, mamoncillo, corozo, uchuva,  feijoa,  granadilla,  mamey,  borojó,  mango,  chontaduro, tamarindo, tomate de árbol, guanábana,  badea and the  pitahaya.  In the traditional meals we can find  “ hoja the platano ” (banana leaf), cheese,  pasteles y tamales, "pandebonos" ,  bandeja paisa,  beans ,  corn arepas,  yuca,  ajiaco, rice with coconut, fish, etc. All this typicall meals are part of the colombian diet, and theres a variety of them in each region due to the influence of European culture.
Since 1991 the church separated from the colombian state, because a religious liberty  among the american indian was stablished.  Since the colonial times most of the population was catholic, due to the European influence, since then,  celebrating catholic celebrations, such as the holly week and going to churcha ll Sundays. Now a days the 80% of the colombian population is catholic, 11.5% Christian groups, meanwhile a Little portion practices judaism, rastafarism, Islamism etc.
Finally Colombia is a country, that not only haves a reach diversity in culture, but also has beautiful land scape, making of this country unique among the hospitality of the regional people and because of its variety and wonderfulness of its territory and fauna and flora.

Jamaican Economy by Monica Murcia

Because Jamaica is a small island, the economy in not the most advanced and developed one. Its economy is very similar to the economy of many of the undeveloped Latin-American countries, is based especially on tourism, agriculture and mining, and in a less proportion foresting and fishing.

Tourism is the activity that more contributes to the Jamaican economy. It is the activity that provides more than a half of the employments. In terms of agriculture, the most important product is the sugar, which covers the 7.1 % of the exports. Also the exportation of banana makes a significant contribution to the Jamaican Economy; it covers over the 2.4% of the total exports. Other important product is the coffee; coffee is mainly grown around the Blue Mountains and in hilly areas, where one type, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, is considered one of the best in the world. It covers around the 1.9 % of the exports. As well as agriculture, fishing contributes to the economy, but in a smaller proportion. In Jamaica most of the habitants live from the fishing activity. There are mainly fished, carp, barbell, crustaceans and mollusks. In the mining area, the most important products are the bauxite and alumina, producing 12,6 millions tons of bauxite and 3.46 million tons of alumina. Jamaica is actually the third producer of bauxite. The export of these minerals covers around the 55.7 of the total exports. Other minerals found and exploited in Jamaica is Marble, Limestone and Silica.

Jamaican Culture by Natalia Arrubla

The Jamaica Film Academy announces the Call for Entries in the 2012 Jamaica Reggae Film Festival, to be held from 17th-21st April in Kingston.

keeping with the format of the inaugural event in February 2008, the Festival will showcase films in which aspects of Jamaica's Reggae music culture are displayed, and documented in documentary, short films, animation and music videos.  In the five years of this event, the Reggae Film Festival has included films made by Jamaicans, as well as global reggae researchers and fans from the Caribbean, UK, USA, Canada, Spain, Germany, Serbia, Italy, Japan, Iran, France and Ethiopia. The porpuse of these documentaries on the history of Jamaican music and music makers, is to archive historical material on the genre that will preserve the oral memories of a culture that has spread to and been honored by the world.

In 2012, in recognition of the 50th year of Jamaica's independence, the Jamaica Reggae Film Festival will be presented internationally in cities around the world, with selected screenings of The Best of the Reggae Film Festival in Toronto, London, Birmingham and New York.

The objective of the Jamaica Film Academy is to increase and improve the output of Jamaican film making, This festival has inspired and produced new Jamaican film making  and discovered a surprising wealth of Jamaican talent in digital animation.  The knowledge and innovation of Jamaican music video makers exposing the talents of Jamaica's powerful musical artists, provides another area highlighted by the Reggae Film Festival.

The Annual Awards are presented in several categories and the international interest in the unique music and culture of Jamaica. The Festival's identification of the genre of 'reggae films' creates a digital archive of films available for research into a variety of aspects of the Jamaican culture that emerged from the Rastafari movement and spread with the music of reggae legend Bob Marley. 

Jamaican Sports by Maria Camila DeBrigard

Eventhought Jamaica has been involved in Sports for a pretty long time as most countries, some people probably do not know what they stand out for, or the roll that they play in the sports world. For this reason, It is importand to know a little bit about their background until we get to the most important and recent news about this specific area.

The important facts really started when the jamaican football selection participated in the World cup in 1998 where unfortunately  they did not pass on to the second round. During that same year, the bobsleigh jamaican team cought everyones atention in the Calgary olympic games where they shined because of their good attitude and perseverance since they have been improving in their results since then. Ita ll seems like bad news but actually there is one character that has not been mentioned jet.

Usain Bolt is the name of one of the most important athletes in the entire World. Bolt is jamaican, and due to his height and discipline he got the record in speed running in Norway and Berlin in 2011. Eventhought he got defeated by Yohan Blake Turing this same year, he is still the best image of jamaican sports and has not lost his tittle when it comes to the 100 m run (he has been 0,02 seconds close to beating the World record of all times).

To know a little more about his achievements now days go to :

http://halconesuruguay.blogspot.com/2009/02/sin-sorpresas-usain-bolt-mejor.html